Safety & Health

Silica Exposure

U.S. Department of Labor Announces the Final Silica Standard

On March 24th, at BAC/IMI International Training Center in Bowie, Maryland, U.S. Secretary of Labor Tom Perez announced the issuance of a Final Rule on Occupational Exposure to Respirable Crystalline Silica (the Final Silica Standard). At that event, Secretary Perez said "We're here to re-affirm a very basic value proposition: that everyone should be able to come home safe and healthy at the end of a hard day's work… that no one should have to give his or her life to earn a living. Silica has been undermining that fundamental right for too long."

The Final Silica Standard takes effect in the construction industry on June 23, 2016, and employers will have to be fully compliant with the vast majority of the rule by June 23, 2017.

Joined by our sister unions, the AFL-CIO and America's Building Trades, BAC has taken a leading role to ensure the final adoption of the new silica standard.